Where to begin?

I'm going to go pretty quickly through about 2 months of updates. Sorry I can't write in my usual flourish, there's just too much time to cover...

Break was fun, spent about 4 weeks in California, mostly hanging out with my old high school friends. Some of them I haven't seen in more than a year's time, like Dana. Thankfully they haven't changed much, except perhaps more mellow and less jittery and ADHD as I remember them from our high school years. I was always the quiet, reserved one, but now I'm probably just as energetic as they are. Now we just like to sit around Dana's fireplace on at his house on Ravensbury like a group of old geezers and just talk about anything.

Got my car (the old purple Volvo) broken into while I was visiting Quincy at Berkeley one day, and his laptop was stolen from it. But he got it back about a week later when someone claimed they had it later, when they traded it for their old laptop. Daniel, Quincy, and I originally thought an Asian guy had broken in the car, because the window was broken and there was a can of tea inside among the broken glass. Then Quincy confirmed the tea can was actually his. Haha... and to think we actually thought an ASIAN had broken into my car... lolz

Ate a ton of good food over break... just thinking about it makes me resent the Sid servery food even more... Crab, dim sum, even caviar and Cristal champagne (both from Costco haha) on Christmas day. What a life.

Got a lot of cool gifts on Christmas too. Besides lots of money (Which I am quickly using up these days... more on that later), I got some nice clothes, my favorite pecan pralines from my grandparents in Texas, and a nice watch (a Seiko "Kinetic", which doesn't require batteries and just powers itself by using my motion to turn an induction generator inside) from my parents, who said that I should be wearing a real watch now that I'm working for a bank :) Not to say I don't sometimes miss those dorky Casio digitals for less than $20 I used to always get, back in my "engineering days".

A friend from Singapore, Tyler Tan, also visited over break. He stayed in San Francisco and came down to Palo Alto to visit once. Always good to see an old foreign friend from my days abroad.

Also met up with Michelle Jin, a friend from 5th floor Sid back at Rice who also lives in the Bay Area. She's an incredibly nice person, as in I have never seen her angry... ever... and I don't know when I ever will. How she does it I don't know, but we seem to get along well.

Went skiing with Natalee and Quincy, too. We actually took a bus up to Tahoe, and skied at Squaw just for the day. Pretty convenient set-up actually. Snow wasn't very good though, still icy.

Now I'm back at Rice doing my usual... but for the last semester. And it looks like I will be going abroad once more before I graduate... YES!!! This time it's a 10-day tour of Vietnam and Taiwan with the Rice INNOVATE program, right after spring break. I'm doing it with about 6 other Rice students. Finally, another chance for a globe-trotting adventure, my favorite, even if it is a quick one. I haven't been to either Vietnam or Taiwan before, so it should be exciting.

Oh and Subhash is back from his NS in Singapore, and he's living in our suite. It's great having him back; he even cut my hair for me today, military style with just some shears haha. Jay and I are helping him get back into the Elec routine... he seems to be handling it fine.

As far as coursework goes, the majority of my classes are now Econ. All part of the Financial Computation and Modeling minor degree that I'm trying to get. These classes, I must honestly say, are not terribly interesting. So we'll see... I was hoping for an awesome end to my 8 semesters of Rice. Will have to fix this...

Oh and last weekend we hosted an ELEC crawl. That was the first real party with alcohol I ever had to host, and I must say it went pretty well considering, besides running out of beer quickly.

I'm sure a lot more could pop into my head that I need to explain, but I need to get some other work done now. Just needed to note this all down before I forgot.

Oh and these are the latest questions I've been thinking about to myself: Would I give up the rest of my life to see what the world is like 500 years in the future? And would I sell my body (either actual body parts or just servitude/slavery of some type) for knowledge? Just ordinary questions to ponder...

Signing out.

My punishment for retreating West: push further East...

Wow, last post was September. What's with the slacking? Well I would say that the month of October 2009 is perhaps one of the most influential months in the determination of the majority of my life's path, depending on a few other factors later this year and next. After a lot of hustle and bustle with a bunch of companies and their interviews, it all boiled down to my original employer, JPMorgan, which was actually the first company I EVER interviewed with, for their internship last year. First time is the charm, just wish I didn't waste so much time on the others. I accepted their offer on October 9th, signing their letter as I was just leaving my own home of 18 years in Los Altos for lunch with family in San Francisco, then hanging out with my old high school buddies in Berkeley. It was definitely lots of mixed emotions, it was a huge relief to have a job, one which I think will have lots of promise for my career too, but on the other hand it was like signing an agreement to forfeit all my dreams of coming back to this beloved home in California that I even came to visit over my fall break. And now I will be even further, geographically, from the West than I was before. Rather than pursuing my goal of becoming a bright and successful Sand Hill Road entrepreneur, it looks like I am headed more towards joining the Manhattan crowd as just another Wall Street minion. Maybe I can still get back, maybe there's another chance for me yet. Or maybe JPM will, hopefully, assign me to a post out in Cali as they expand out West to replace old WaMu. Or I could learn enough finance to be able to choose where I want to go later. In any case, the fight isn't lost yet... just need more time.

Well, at least it's NYC and not Houston:


"In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York,
These streets will make you feel brand new,
Big lights will inspire you, let's hear it for New York!
New York, New York"
-Jay Z, "Empire State of Mind"

In other realms, took the GRE yesterday, and am gradually trying to re-establish good terms with my research professors. I am still going to submit applications to the best graduate schools in the nation; something tells me I will regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't at least try.

Senior Design project is actually going well, and I'm actually enjoying being able to finally use my ELEC skills for something worthwhile. It's a gesture-control iPhone remote control that will hopefully be able to at least control your PC the same way a mouse does by the end of the year. Jaimeet, Max Paul, Tate Hornbeck, and I have been working on it since September, and so far it's promising. One of the things I will miss about engineering, being able to work an awesome projects with awesome people. Not to say finance isn't fun... sometimes.

Who am I kidding. I'm not just in for the ride. I want the challenge. Just bring it on, and I'll take it.

But first, some lunch...

Time for a New Odyssey

Lately I've been having some strange dreams in Houston. One night I was abducted by aliens, actually "abduction" is a bit too strong of a word to use here. More like the aliens asked if any humans would like to travel with them, and I volunteered rather enthusiastically. The journey after that was like a mixture of Star Wars and Halo. Then the next night I dreamed I was a world explorer during the 1600s or whenever it was that they were still trying to find the best way to get to Asia from Europe. I've concluded that this means I am rearing for yet another adventure in my life. Travel. Experience. My next odyssey, when will it call me?

Regardless of school though, I've had some fun while in Texas. Last weekend went to San Antonio for a family reunion over Labor Day weekend, and to celebrate grandmother's birthday. Was relaxing, even got to go to my uncle's ranch to go dove-hunting. I cannot emphasize more "harder than it looks" when it comes to trying to take out a bird flying over you with an automatic shotgun, even when its just a few meters away. My relatives made it look so easy, meanwhile, I'm jerking all over the place like a Dick Cheney on crack. Same goes for paintballing, which I did with my friends a few weeks ago as well.

This weekend was also fun, went to a small amusement park with my fellow dorm-mates for Sid retreat. Go-carting, bumper boats, and mini-golf. Like a kid again :) Then went to an orchestral concert with Shaiyan and Jay, where we mingled with Houston's rich and old people listening to Stravinsky and Holtz, sipping complimentary champagne afterward. Then heading to Hard Rock Cafe for some burgers and more alcohol with Jay Jay (very effeminate waiter) and crew. Finishing off with the Euro-trash party at another college. The entire theme of that day could probably be summarized in these words:



"Somewhere deep inside me, I find... the CHILD I USED TO BEEEEE!"
... yeah this song was also the opening to Sasha Cohen's "Bruno". What. I can't blame the movie for good taste in music.

Ok and what has been keeping me busy lately, as in actual work you might ask? Well, it's been coursework as usual, combined with GRE studying and job-applications. So far I've interviewed with companies in engineering, software, petroleum, banking, and consulting. Sometimes I just want to scream at the top of my lungs, at all these graduate schools and corporations, JUST GET ME BACK TO CALIFORNIA! I don't care what the salary is, just reunite me with my homeland. I want to be young and free again.

Ok, time for lunch and getting down to work. Jay is now awake... oh, I forgot to mention that he learned on Friday (Sept. 11th by coincidence?) that he got an offer for a full-time job with his former employer as an intern, Horizon. It's awesome, he's so relieved. USA wants him to stay here after all. Instead of a suspect immigrant he is a hard-working, perfect example of what proud Americans should and will be. And just an uber cool guy all around of course.

Ciao.

Rice: Best Quality of Student Life, and Easiest School Name to Make Fun of

The reality of class-life has hit me like a ton of bricks. Especially after a week-long vacation in NYC and New England, wining and dining with family in the city and on the beaches. And especially with so much pressure on this one semester to get grad-school, my career, and everything all sorted out. At this point I have already given up and blogging again. I nearly lost my room keys on the first day, while playing ultimate Frisbee. At least I'm on campus though, and I'm back with a group of people I'm relatively familiar with to start with.

I will say very honestly that this week has begun with a little heavy sense of defeat. I know, what madness is this. But I've just heard rumors of some news from California regarding an old friend of mine, and if true I don't think it will be good for me. I hate any situation having my hands tied when in a place different from where another person or thing that could use my immediate attention. It sucks. I'm going to have to tackle this, but how. Tell me HOW! I will figure something out, but I question the outcome, the method, the motive, everything. Complicated.

Let me try to remember the better days. NYC was great, went out to nice restaurants, saw a show on Broadway. Yale, where my sister is going, was a cool campus. They have a pizza shop in their town that makes delicious New England style clam pizza. It's also where I developed a taste for Amarone, a fine Italian red wine from the Veneto region that comes from grapes dried on straw mats, and that costs about $75 a bottle. After that, we went to Newport, Rhode Island, where we ate lots of seafood, beached, and rode boats everywhere. Rhode Island is very much an Ocean State, if not much bigger than say Singapore even.

But now I'm back here in Houston, sitting in over-air conditioned classrooms listening to old professors drone. And yet so much work, so many expectations, I have a headache...

Life should be a party. What is this.

Pop, War, and Innocence

I originally didn't think anything of Michael Jackson's passing, and was actually pretty annoyed at how much media attention this guy was getting. Especially when the great Robert McNamara, savior of the Cuban Missile Crisis, "whiz kid" of Ford Motor Company's revival during the post-WWII period, and architect of the Vietnam War, died the same week as Jackson, and nobody even cared. I saw only one article on the matter, whereas I saw countless articles that just had the same headline of Jackson's daughter saying what a great daddy he was.

But just today, as I was eating clementines from Kroger at the dinner table, mumbling to myself about what I hate about the world, I realized that Jackson may really have been a heroic figure of some sort, in a similar way to what McNamara was. Both seemed to struggle throughout their years with the concept of innocence. Both sought to define, to protect, or to create innocence. But they failed. Miserably. Jackson surrounded himself with symbols and themes of youth, which he considered the heart and soul of innocence. But instead he was sued for being a pervert, and died young from drugs. Pity. But McNamara did not do much better. He assumed he was protecting the innocent from backwards ideology, brainwashing, even from world destruction. But he merely brought more death, more inhumanity, to the world than he began with, responsible for the deaths of many innocents.

So before you tell me to go take a philosophy class about innocence and what it means to achieve and maintain innocence, I will say, how do you know someone who thinks they can tell me what innocence is, will not actually just rob me of it. Heck, by reading this very blog post, this could be the end of your innocence. Sorry about that. But what use was it to you anyway. Who knows. So that's what makes me wonder, is there any use in trying to be innocent... not that I'm going around killing and stealing, but rather, just toying with the idea and thinking of what should be done with all these people around me who think innocence is a virtue. Ponder that, Mr. Pei.

I've also been thinking about immigration lately. As my friend Jay will gladly tell me, it's really difficult to immigrate to the US. And people like my Dad will gladly tell me how this country is successful because it was built by immigrants who could not exercise their full potentials elsewhere. I myself would like to think that the US is the "light on the hill", which attracts the best and brightest from all over the world to come here and lead successful lives, which the rest of the country can benefit from as well. So should immigration quotas be relaxed or tightened, or kept as they are? As you can probably tell, I say relaxed. Globalization is removing the need for feudal and nationalistic views on the world's identity. We have passed the age of Individuality, of the Personal Potential. We're now in the age of Do-Anything-Anywhere, and Maximized Efficiency of Humanity (MEH...). My old friend Ayn Rand was right, when she called for the praise of human innovation and objective efficiency of manpower. But individuality, I think, cannot be accommodated for in all cases, as not everyone is ideal, and the world right now has people born in all the wrong places and situations, and with no way to get out, save death. It will take great, orchestrated human effort, eased by freedom of movement and migration, to save the world. If the US is the first to really promote that, then it will all begin here. Not that I'm patriotic ;)

Anything else? Updates on my summer, I just came back from Dallas this weekend, to meet my family there. Always fun to take advantage of the weekends to run away and see family. And now I'm sitting in the Maroneal business center, because my apartment has no power. At first we thought a Shamoor was pulled (i.e. someone forgot to pay the bills), but the power company says we should have power. Damn. So I'm sleeping in a non-airconned room in Houston's summer heat tonight. Oh well, I'm sort of used to it. Singapore manned me up. Oh speaking of which, I found a Singaporean restaurant in Houston! I was actually going out to Chinatown to just get some dimsum or something. I tried this place called Hong Kong DimSum. Misleading. Sure enough, they have dimsum, but most of the menu was actually Singaporean dishes. So I'll probably return there every once in a while, to get my fix of SIN :)

And that's all for now that I can recall. Good night!